Let's Look At Some History: The Path To America
It's Starting To Feel Like Fall Y'all! Let's get right into it!
Those that really know me, know I enjoy learning about history and this October issue seemed like a great opportunity to really dig in and indulge my curiosity a bit. How does all this break down? Lets get to it.
Chapter 1 : The Indigenous people, the first people (15,000+ years ago)
Long before any ship showed up, the land was home to thousands of people with trade routes of their own. Here in North Georgia, the Cherokee and Muscogee (Creek) peoples built towns along the rivers and named the places we still say every day. Dahlonega comes from the Cherokee word dalonige for yellow or golden. The Chattahoochee's name is thought to trace back to the Muscogee meaning marked rocks . We've talked about our trade town of Flowery Branch, called Anaguluskee by the Cherokee so many years ago.
Chapter 2 : The Norse detour with Leif Erikson (around 1000 years ago)
About 500 years before Columbus, Norse explorer Leif Erikson reached North America. Rumor has it he heard a story of Bjarni Herjolfsson, who was blown off course on his way from Iceland to Greenland and first saw this strange new land, but did not stop. Leif went exploring and what really strikes me is that h e never wrote any of it down; the story was passed along aloud for about 200 years before Icelandic writers put it in two sagas, which don't even agree on how he got here. Proof finally came in 1960, when a Norse site turned up in Newfoundland. In 2021, tree rings in its wood pinned it to the year 1021. I mean, how crazy is that!? Stories passed generation to generation before being put to manuscript! Then confirmed about 1000 years later!
Chapter 3 : Columbus and The wrong turn (1492)
Now lets chat about Columbus, who pitched Spain on a shortcut west to Asia. He figured Japan was about 2,800 miles away; it's more than 12,000. He landed in the Bahamas, insisted it was Asia and never changed his mind. In 1507, a German mapmaker named the new continents "America" after Amerigo Vespucci, the one who said out loud that this was a whole new world. So... yep, America was founded on a wrong turn. Luckily, they didn't have GPS back then! (Otherwise things may have turned out way differently lol)
So, How long did it take to build America?
The answer: about 467 years from Columbus to 50 states, then 183 years from the Declaration of Independence, and more than 15,000 years of people already living here. That friends, was a lot of wrong turns, mishaps and fortune that helped create the America we know today. So thank you to ALL the explorers and the people that helped along the way. Below is a timeline chart that includes some details about Georgia and where our state fits in. What event catches your eye?
While every effort was made to properly research and share this information as accurately as possible,
there are bound to be mistakes, gaps or as we all know, history gets updated... thank you for your understanding.
